Improvement in blasting-powder



PATENT Qantas.

WILLIAM SILVER, JR-., 'OF PITTSTON, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT 'lN BLASTlNG PGA/DER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 143,260., dated November 22, 1853.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM SILVER, J r., of Pittston, in the county of Luzerne, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Powder for Blasting in Mines, 8210.; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

The nature of my invention consists in treating the powder which I make with a solution of the chlorate 0t potash and maintaining it for use in an unglazed state.

Common powder for-blasting rocks and for the use of fire-arms is made of a composition of charcoal, niter, and sulphur. These ingredients have been and still are mixed in various quantities, but no powder composed of such ingredients only is suitable for blasting in mines or underground, because the gas which is the. result of the combustion of a powder made of these ingredients is very heavy, is of a very sufiocating nature, and alter one or two blasts are fired in a mine it takes a long time before the atmosphere of the mine is in a fit state for the miners to labor at their occupation. My object has been to make a safe powder to use, andone that will produce a more attenuated and less suflocating gas when it is ignited. This I believe have accomplished, so that miners, when blasting, will be able to-work with more pleasure, to do more work, and have a greater security for health than by using any of the common kinds of blasting-powder.

The following description ct my invention will enable any one skilled in the art to make and'use the same.

To manufacture one hundred pounds of my improved blasting-powder I take nineteen and ahalf (19%) pounds of good prepared charcoal, (prepared for common powder,) sixty-eight, (68) pounds of good saltpeter, and twelve and ahalf (12%) pounds of good sulphur. These ingredients are ground up together dry in any common machine used for that purpose, and then pressed in a common box-press, and then granulated. These processes are not new; nor is the machinery. Therefore I need not fur-- ther describe them. After this powder is in this state (granulated) I take some good chlorate of potash and dissolveitin hot water until the water will hold no more solution. This is the strength at which I use it, andlhis is also the test of its proper strength for use. I take this solution and sprinkle it on the said granulated powder, stirring and mixing the whole well together until the granulated powdcr is well moistened. I then place it in a room heated to about 100 lhihrenheia'and keep it in this place for aboutfourdays, when all the moisture is found to be expelled, and the powder ready and fit for blasting purposes. It is not glazed in a cylinder like the common gunpowder, and I have found that it ignites much faster and exhibits more explosive force.

The chlorate of potash plays the important part of supplying oxygen to the other ingredients, preventing the setting freeot carbonicoxide gas, producing a more thorough con1- bustion of the powder at a lower heat, the result being more carbonic-acidgas, which is colorless and without that strongly offensive odor which belongs to the carbonic oxide which is so freely liberated in common powder.

What I claim as my invention is-- The blasting-powder as above set forth, the

same consisting in an unglazed powder composed of charcoal, niter,'and sulphur in the proportions specified, prepared and treated with chlorate ot' potash according to the directions, substantially as set forth. I do not claim the use of chlorate ot' potash as a means of preventing smoke in mine-blasting, except when combined with charcoal, sulphur, and niter, in the manner substantially as 'hereiuahove set forth.

\Vashington, D. (3., October 7, 1853.

\VILLIAM SILVER, JR.

Witnesses J. M. DAMAN, WILLIAM. SOFRANCE. 

